Record fee earnings helped Apollo post a first-quarter profit even as gains from asset sales fell steeply.

The New York alternative asset manager said fee-related earnings rose 28% to $397m in the first three months of this year from the year-earlier period. Apollo benefited from a 14% increase in fund management fee revenue, to $577m, while revenue from transactions and advising activities, called capital solutions fees, more than doubled to $138m.